Conflict of interest? There ain’t no such thing in Booger County. As I reported last week, Rusty asked Judge Black to transfer the case from district court back to county court, even though the case originated in county court and Paschall was responsible for transferring it to district court in the first place. We now have a pattern: every time a judge realizes that Paschall has swindled the estate, Paschall requests a transfer to a new judge who happens to be a political crony.

You may recall that Judge Black ordered Paschall to deposit more than $86,000 of estate funds in the registry of the court, and Paschall brought the money to the district clerk in a brown paper bag. To this day, Paschall refuses to disclose the source of the cash. You may also recall that I represented the Calvert Historical Foundation in the lawsuit against Paschall until Rusty’s and Paschall’s allies took over the organization, ousted its president, and fired me (even though I was representing the foundation for free). … Read more

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This afternoon I learned that the Calvert Historical Foundation dismissed its lawsuit against former Robertson County District Attorney John C. Paschall, walking away from more than $86,000.00 in cash sitting in the registry of the court. I also learned that Paschall is trying to get the case transferred to another court.

You have to give those crooks credit for one thing: they never give up. Prior to my termination, I had repeatedly heard rumors that Paschall and his attorney, Bryan F. “Rusty” Russ, Jr., were trying to get their cronies to join the foundation as members, then sabotage the lawsuit. And now that the FBI, the Texas Rangers, and the State Bar of Texas are investigating, they are trying really hard to shut down the civil case against Paschall.

Apparently Rusty has asked Senior District Judge H.D. Black, Jr., the visiting judge who is presiding over the Marium Oscar probate proceeding, to transfer the case back to county court. This is a nefarious request. Like all probate cases, the Marium Oscar case originally was filed in county court. The county judge at the time grew very suspicious of Paschall, however, because time and again Paschall failed to file the statutorily-mandated inventory of the estate’s assets. Eventually, the county judge removed Paschall as executor.

Paschall’s drinking buddy and attorney at the time, T. Wayne Brimhall (who is also the husband of County Clerk Kathryn Brimhall), immediately asked the county judge to transfer the case to district court, supposedly because the estate owned some bond certificates that needed to be interpreted by the district court. The request was a ruse, because to this day Paschall has never asked the district court to interpret any bond certificates. … Read more

First, the perfunctory disclaimer: I am not a fan of Rick Perry, although I have voted for him in past general elections. That said, nobody deserves to be threatened with 99 years in prison because of a political disagreement. And yesterday’s indictment of the governor appears to be just that: an attempt to criminalize a political disagreement.

As I understand the indictment, Perry is charged with one third-degree felony and one first-degree felony (i.e., the equivalent of a murder charge in Texas) because he threatened to veto funding for the public integrity unit at the Travis County District Attorney’s Office unless District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg resigned.

Lehmberg, you may recall, had been arrested for drunk driving. She was videotaped kicking her cell door in the Travis County Jail, yelling at jailers, and demanding special treatment, and she ultimately had to be restrained because of her resistance. Afterwards, she steadfastly refused to resign, and Perry made good on his threat by vetoing $7.5 million in funds for her office. According to Michael McCrum, the special prosecutor who sought Perry’s indictment, the governor was within his rights to veto funding, but he committed a felony by threatening to veto funding unless Lehmberg resigned. … Read more

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LawFlog is the blog of Ty Clevenger, a Texas attorney who lives in Manhattan. Posts are irregular at best (and Dulcolax doesn't seem to help). You can reach Ty at tyclevenger at gmail dot com, you can follow Lawflog on Facebook or Twitter (@Ty_Clevenger), or you can leave a voice message at 979-985-5289.